How artificial intelligence is quietly transforming the way we grow food — and why the most exciting opportunity has nothing to do with robots harvesting lettuce.
As a result of government efforts and subsidies, we have a NOAA weather system that reports fake data from ghost weather stations. The excuse for this long standing problem is that they can extrapolate data from the remaining, surrounding stations to create data to ascribe to the no longer existing stations. From this kind of “data” the global warming 🤣 predictions have come. How can we prevent such subsidized fakery from governing soil use?? The faked weather data has given us vast lithium mines and wind farms and solar farms on arable land, and forced production of all electric vehicles. What’s to prevent similar damage from increasing government management of soils??
While I like regenerative farming, I fear government oversight.
"And by 2050, we will need to feed roughly ten billion people. That is a lot of pressure on a system that is already showing cracks."
This seems a shift away from local concerns and backyard farming that have previously been emphasized on this Substack.
Ten billion people. While western civilization has below replacement level birthrates.
I don't want to launch missiles into the yards of people on the other side of the world. I don't want their children to be killed by pharmaceutical malice. But neither do I want to be responsible for feeding them; or for the community behaviors they'll defend with violence and that compound the miseries of their existence.
I want a limited sphere of concern, defined by boundaries and shared values. Sometimes it feels naive and fanciful.
Pretty much on the same page - tho, I’m only had a couple sips of tea so far, so let mull it all over 😉.
Anyway, we don’t HAVE to feed the world: food, energy, technology should be used much like how POTUS Trump was attempting to use tariffs - carrot and stick. For the life of m, don’t understand this predilection to feed/house/muscle up enemies who’ve sworn to put us under.
Ideology matters: you point a missile at me I’m not gonna scratch your back
No no, wouldn’t do that; but consider: the two most populous nations are below repopulation levels (2.1 births/woman) as are all/most western and asian nations. Only Arab and African nations consistently exceed that 2.1 birth rate.
And as I said before, I don’t believe we have an OBLIGATION to feed people who would take/accept our resources but are willing to slit our throats in the dark. And please, don’t try to flip Christ’s words inside out: He was concerned with the individual, not nations - if you want to give your resources to people sworn to kill you, praises (just make sure you’ve paid off your debts (esp to me) before you do so). Not all cultures are equivalent - that some cultures are willing to kill our culture should ( SHOULD ) make that obvious.
Very encouraging perspective on how technology can be harnessed to support more natural and sustainable agricultural systems. I appreciate your pointing out how A.I. is no different from any other technology in that its potential for positive or negative effects depends on how it is deployed and by whom. Great power requires great responsibility. Power also corrupts. We will see the battle between our better and worse tendencies play out in A.I. and as always, it will be an epic fight.
Very complete and necessary overview. This application of AI is less frightening to me and still needs oversight and direction. A combination of human love of the land and technical support could be ideal. Now we're talking.
Just a word of caution and humility when it comes to doing things on a planetary scale. While this is really exciting stuff, the idea of monitoring bird songs triggered my fears that this could play into global surveillance and tokenization of everything. Will a small farmer be forced to do something on his/her land for the 'greater good'? It is in a way reminiscent of Mao's 4 pests campaign which yielded suboptimal results. I like the comment by @randallstoehr that mentioned battery powered drones - at least there you could own the drones and data and be more divorced from big tech (aside from GPS of course).
"Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil, and you're a thousand miles from the corn field." — attributed to Dwight D. Eisenhower (a sage IMO)
Fascinating. Psssst: greenhouse guys turn CO2 concentrations up to and above 1000 ppm for optimal growth.
The Earth’s atmosphere is currently some 420 ppm - famine levels where 150 ppm begins to stall photosynthesis -heading to 100 ppm where it ends - and with it life.
Since 1980 (?) 15% of the Earth’s deserts have greened due to CO2 fertilization, which also has the knock-on effect of the more efficient use of water. This is an area equal to that of the Continental U.S.
I can appreciate the precision with which farming can be done with AI data and remote sensing in real time on a field by field basis. Even the "feed the world" concept, which stimulated me to get into ag is now to me more of a *how* to feed the world question, which regenerative answers and is certainly helped by precision data.
As said at the end of the article, there are potential drawbacks such as who owns the data and is everything based on the mai stream US and western EU type farming. I'm more snd more libertarian and am skeptical of innocent accumulation of such data with "puppeteers" clearly in charge of most mainstream initiatives.
While appreciative of a way of getting regenerative acreage enlarged and livestock reintegrated into the landscape, agriculture still has the word *culture* in it, and I'll always see that as top priority. To me, that means emphasizing local community interaction between farm, farmers, and town (both vegetable producers and livestock holders). Perhaps most meaningful to human psyche is the hands-on animal husbandry to enhance the farmer's and animal's sense experience with the landscape that we are caring for.
Nothing beats the shadow of the farmer on their land. Still should hold true even with the precision ag peering down from above.
My first thought, actually, ran counter to the first line: yes, I want a robot to pick my lettuce. Rather, anything above the ground is fine - what I want is a robot that can get down on its knees to dig potatoes. Even with the improvements I’ve been able to effect this winter, getting down, much less getting back up, is rough. Still, the momentary discomfort is worth it - home grow’d taters rival the joy of fresh off the vine ( 🤣 cane) corn.
Speaking of robot "weeders," an article about a laser "weeder" came across my desk last year - instead of disturbing the soil and/or nearby crop, this huge machine zaps the baddies where they sit.
And finally, one of the first bios I ever read was about a man named George Washington Carver - I think it appropriate to include him as a forefather of regenerative farming. [side note: me thinks I should reacquaint meself with GWC as a quick Google search just now turned up personal details I do not remember from that earlier study - readily admit that in my younger years was more in tune with the way of things than the way of people (I’d like to think that has flip-flopped)
AI, technology in farming / AI, technology in industry - doing more with less. This is a little (OK, maybe a lot) off topic but I’m concerned about the humanity in where we’re going, and how we’re getting there. Humans were not designed for idleness. The more our machines do for us the less WE do for ourselves. Not talking about the dangerous stuff; but my experience is that a large percentage of people (and that number seems to grow yearly 😔) are not self starters - even doing the bare minimum to stay alive is difficult.
When we further distance ourselves from the activities necessary to maintain a population, a society, the importance of those elements necessary for a successful society will be lost. Work, a daily struggle is necessary
Battery power Flying Drones with GPS exact mapping in sync field dimensions and heights over contours now spray corn top tassels just inches over each top with a soft spray to improve the entire harvest. No more super lite aircraft laying down con trails of growth Ag juice that 50% of which falls to the ground or is carried away in the breeze to where it is not needed.
Already in place. The community co-ops invest in the tech and rent out the
contractors to the fields for the styles of crops planted or seeded.
Lowering the cost, examining the annual success ratio between others involved with the latest tech growing similar on similar soils. My son in law works co-oops.
Obviously it will take years to dial in the data in the hopes for excellence data.
Regenerative agriculture is ore labor intensive especially for fruit and vegetables. We need land reform via tax reform via tax shift off of wages and onto land value only. Robert you should call me to talk about this Bobby Kennedy needs to understand this as well 717-357-7617 in PA or else I drive south from PA to VA to visit you.
Taxing property removes small farmers. It removes small owners of every kind. It’s an accelerant of genuine fascism, which can be made total by that means in a single generation.
I don 't see Masanobu Fukuoka mentioned, and his book The One Straw Revolution. I think 4 or so have been translated and are very worth reading. He went around the world to teach farmers this system of farming, where 2 harvests would be combined and the soil would not be tilled.
For over 100 years the farm seed company I own with my brother and employees has produced, processed and marketed the most diverse organic/non gmo inventory of farm and field seed in North America. We are also the largest USDA organic farm seed company in the US. The flip side is ONLY 1% of farming is organic/regenerative In the US farmers can still use untreated conventional seed to plant their organic acres. Can ai actually help reduce chemical and inorganic fertilizer inputs and allow farmers to make a living? Maybe, but these ai start ups are going to run into real life problems. Like cover crops themselves, all these technologies are not going to be adapted instantly or ever and must be slowly introduced into farming operations and often don't work because of weather, weed pressure and the decades of practice required to get them into meaningful crop rotations. Remember regenerative farming is hardly NEW and was substantially what all farmers were doing until the 1950's. Then NEW technologies and practices came along and well...you can see what happened.
As a result of government efforts and subsidies, we have a NOAA weather system that reports fake data from ghost weather stations. The excuse for this long standing problem is that they can extrapolate data from the remaining, surrounding stations to create data to ascribe to the no longer existing stations. From this kind of “data” the global warming 🤣 predictions have come. How can we prevent such subsidized fakery from governing soil use?? The faked weather data has given us vast lithium mines and wind farms and solar farms on arable land, and forced production of all electric vehicles. What’s to prevent similar damage from increasing government management of soils??
While I like regenerative farming, I fear government oversight.
Agree with concluding sentence
"And by 2050, we will need to feed roughly ten billion people. That is a lot of pressure on a system that is already showing cracks."
This seems a shift away from local concerns and backyard farming that have previously been emphasized on this Substack.
Ten billion people. While western civilization has below replacement level birthrates.
I don't want to launch missiles into the yards of people on the other side of the world. I don't want their children to be killed by pharmaceutical malice. But neither do I want to be responsible for feeding them; or for the community behaviors they'll defend with violence and that compound the miseries of their existence.
I want a limited sphere of concern, defined by boundaries and shared values. Sometimes it feels naive and fanciful.
But, but, all that profit for agrabusinesses!!
Pretty much on the same page - tho, I’m only had a couple sips of tea so far, so let mull it all over 😉.
Anyway, we don’t HAVE to feed the world: food, energy, technology should be used much like how POTUS Trump was attempting to use tariffs - carrot and stick. For the life of m, don’t understand this predilection to feed/house/muscle up enemies who’ve sworn to put us under.
Ideology matters: you point a missile at me I’m not gonna scratch your back
Sure sure. Mull it over, and you can decide whether to call me an idiot or not after the caffeine kicks in.
No no, wouldn’t do that; but consider: the two most populous nations are below repopulation levels (2.1 births/woman) as are all/most western and asian nations. Only Arab and African nations consistently exceed that 2.1 birth rate.
And as I said before, I don’t believe we have an OBLIGATION to feed people who would take/accept our resources but are willing to slit our throats in the dark. And please, don’t try to flip Christ’s words inside out: He was concerned with the individual, not nations - if you want to give your resources to people sworn to kill you, praises (just make sure you’ve paid off your debts (esp to me) before you do so). Not all cultures are equivalent - that some cultures are willing to kill our culture should ( SHOULD ) make that obvious.
Very encouraging perspective on how technology can be harnessed to support more natural and sustainable agricultural systems. I appreciate your pointing out how A.I. is no different from any other technology in that its potential for positive or negative effects depends on how it is deployed and by whom. Great power requires great responsibility. Power also corrupts. We will see the battle between our better and worse tendencies play out in A.I. and as always, it will be an epic fight.
Very complete and necessary overview. This application of AI is less frightening to me and still needs oversight and direction. A combination of human love of the land and technical support could be ideal. Now we're talking.
Just a word of caution and humility when it comes to doing things on a planetary scale. While this is really exciting stuff, the idea of monitoring bird songs triggered my fears that this could play into global surveillance and tokenization of everything. Will a small farmer be forced to do something on his/her land for the 'greater good'? It is in a way reminiscent of Mao's 4 pests campaign which yielded suboptimal results. I like the comment by @randallstoehr that mentioned battery powered drones - at least there you could own the drones and data and be more divorced from big tech (aside from GPS of course).
Farming is easy.......if you don't have to make a living doing it.
"Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil, and you're a thousand miles from the corn field." — attributed to Dwight D. Eisenhower (a sage IMO)
Agree....he was.
Fascinating. Psssst: greenhouse guys turn CO2 concentrations up to and above 1000 ppm for optimal growth.
The Earth’s atmosphere is currently some 420 ppm - famine levels where 150 ppm begins to stall photosynthesis -heading to 100 ppm where it ends - and with it life.
Since 1980 (?) 15% of the Earth’s deserts have greened due to CO2 fertilization, which also has the knock-on effect of the more efficient use of water. This is an area equal to that of the Continental U.S.
I can appreciate the precision with which farming can be done with AI data and remote sensing in real time on a field by field basis. Even the "feed the world" concept, which stimulated me to get into ag is now to me more of a *how* to feed the world question, which regenerative answers and is certainly helped by precision data.
As said at the end of the article, there are potential drawbacks such as who owns the data and is everything based on the mai stream US and western EU type farming. I'm more snd more libertarian and am skeptical of innocent accumulation of such data with "puppeteers" clearly in charge of most mainstream initiatives.
While appreciative of a way of getting regenerative acreage enlarged and livestock reintegrated into the landscape, agriculture still has the word *culture* in it, and I'll always see that as top priority. To me, that means emphasizing local community interaction between farm, farmers, and town (both vegetable producers and livestock holders). Perhaps most meaningful to human psyche is the hands-on animal husbandry to enhance the farmer's and animal's sense experience with the landscape that we are caring for.
Nothing beats the shadow of the farmer on their land. Still should hold true even with the precision ag peering down from above.
My first thought, actually, ran counter to the first line: yes, I want a robot to pick my lettuce. Rather, anything above the ground is fine - what I want is a robot that can get down on its knees to dig potatoes. Even with the improvements I’ve been able to effect this winter, getting down, much less getting back up, is rough. Still, the momentary discomfort is worth it - home grow’d taters rival the joy of fresh off the vine ( 🤣 cane) corn.
Speaking of robot "weeders," an article about a laser "weeder" came across my desk last year - instead of disturbing the soil and/or nearby crop, this huge machine zaps the baddies where they sit.
And finally, one of the first bios I ever read was about a man named George Washington Carver - I think it appropriate to include him as a forefather of regenerative farming. [side note: me thinks I should reacquaint meself with GWC as a quick Google search just now turned up personal details I do not remember from that earlier study - readily admit that in my younger years was more in tune with the way of things than the way of people (I’d like to think that has flip-flopped)
AI, technology in farming / AI, technology in industry - doing more with less. This is a little (OK, maybe a lot) off topic but I’m concerned about the humanity in where we’re going, and how we’re getting there. Humans were not designed for idleness. The more our machines do for us the less WE do for ourselves. Not talking about the dangerous stuff; but my experience is that a large percentage of people (and that number seems to grow yearly 😔) are not self starters - even doing the bare minimum to stay alive is difficult.
When we further distance ourselves from the activities necessary to maintain a population, a society, the importance of those elements necessary for a successful society will be lost. Work, a daily struggle is necessary
Has there been a comparison between this new technology and the practices employed for years by the Amish farmers?
Doubtful
Battery power Flying Drones with GPS exact mapping in sync field dimensions and heights over contours now spray corn top tassels just inches over each top with a soft spray to improve the entire harvest. No more super lite aircraft laying down con trails of growth Ag juice that 50% of which falls to the ground or is carried away in the breeze to where it is not needed.
Yeah....cool things like that!
I like the drone idea bc you could own them and the data and be less reliant on big tech brother
Already in place. The community co-ops invest in the tech and rent out the
contractors to the fields for the styles of crops planted or seeded.
Lowering the cost, examining the annual success ratio between others involved with the latest tech growing similar on similar soils. My son in law works co-oops.
Obviously it will take years to dial in the data in the hopes for excellence data.
Earl I am no expert. In all honesty....
What I know about large farming you could stick on the head of a pin.
But I read a lot, and small gardening to eat fresh things is more than a hobby.
Regenerative agriculture is ore labor intensive especially for fruit and vegetables. We need land reform via tax reform via tax shift off of wages and onto land value only. Robert you should call me to talk about this Bobby Kennedy needs to understand this as well 717-357-7617 in PA or else I drive south from PA to VA to visit you.
Taxing property removes small farmers. It removes small owners of every kind. It’s an accelerant of genuine fascism, which can be made total by that means in a single generation.
Along with getting Monsanto or the Bayer conglomz etcetera etc....
entirely away from mass production food systems.
Weed killers kill more than just weeds.....you just don't see it right away.
It's cumulative toxicity occurring poison creeping deeper into soils.
I don 't see Masanobu Fukuoka mentioned, and his book The One Straw Revolution. I think 4 or so have been translated and are very worth reading. He went around the world to teach farmers this system of farming, where 2 harvests would be combined and the soil would not be tilled.
Any similarity to The Farmer in the Dell? (Computer)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Farmer_in_the_Dell
For over 100 years the farm seed company I own with my brother and employees has produced, processed and marketed the most diverse organic/non gmo inventory of farm and field seed in North America. We are also the largest USDA organic farm seed company in the US. The flip side is ONLY 1% of farming is organic/regenerative In the US farmers can still use untreated conventional seed to plant their organic acres. Can ai actually help reduce chemical and inorganic fertilizer inputs and allow farmers to make a living? Maybe, but these ai start ups are going to run into real life problems. Like cover crops themselves, all these technologies are not going to be adapted instantly or ever and must be slowly introduced into farming operations and often don't work because of weather, weed pressure and the decades of practice required to get them into meaningful crop rotations. Remember regenerative farming is hardly NEW and was substantially what all farmers were doing until the 1950's. Then NEW technologies and practices came along and well...you can see what happened.